Saturday, December 31, 2016

Happy New Year! All year long I give thanks to my readers and TPT followers. To show my appreciation and the appreciation of other SPED teachers, go to TPT and search #spednewyear to find all the amazing dollar deals available for two days.

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

I've been working hard over break preparing for January activities when school resumes next week. My newest pack is huge and contains all the skills I plan on teaching my little love bugs. Since my class was changed last year I am able to really challenge some of my learners with harder activities so I needed to create and add to what I usually teach. This pack is very comprehensive and allows for lots of differentiation. It ranges from colors and shapes to number bonds and segmenting sounds! There's a little bit of everything in here!

Segmenting and blending sounds (two versions);

Alphabet Snow Globes (two versions; one with letters and one without);

Student recording sheets (four versions; two uppercase and two lowercase) that can be used with the alphabet cards for letter recognition activities to letter sound cards;

Rhyming Activities, with student practice pages;

Number Bonds with student practice pages;

Two different type ten frame activity cards;

with a student practice sheet

Missing numbers in a sequence cards and student practice pages;

Greater than and less than cards and student practice pages.

Sequencing;

Lots of different shape activities;

Color Recognition and Color Word Activities;

Building Name Activities;

Plus, patterns to have students make their own snow globe craftivity!

This is just a sampling of everything that is included.

Here is a more detailed list:

•Build a Snowman Sequencing Activity: Students cut, glue, and color the pictures in order to show the steps to build a snowman.

•Snowball Shape Match: Students match mittens by snowball shapes. Shapes included are: circle, square, rectangle, and rhombus. hexagon, triangle, oval, trapezoid, octagon, pentagon, heart, and star. A second set with shape words is included for students working on sight words.

•Mitten Shape Match Student Sheet: Students cut and glue the matching shape snowball to make a pair of mittens for a take home sheet. A second page with sight words is also included.

* Mitten Snowball Shape Emergent Reader: Students listen to the clues of shape characteristics and glue the shapes in the mittens of this interactive reader.

•Snowman Build By Shape: Students stack snowmen by shape {head, middle, and bottom}, then add the hat with the same shape ball on top and add the matching scarf. The shapes are outlined in a square for easy cutting, but may by cut by shape instead. A snowy outdoor scene is also provided, along with shape words to add a challenge for students learning shape sight words. Ideas for use include: Place the snowy scene on a cookie sheet, add a shape word and have student find the correct shapes and accessories to build that particular snowman. For younger students, place the bottom piece of the snowman and have students place the build the rest of the snowman by shape.

•Colorful Snow Scenes: Four snow pictures {snowball throwing, hiding, snowsuit, and snowman with scarf} coordinated by color (red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, pink, brown, white, black, and gray). Students match the picture sets by color. Add color pompoms and matching tins to a tub or sensory table, along with tongs to make it a fun fine motor activity.

•Scarf Colors: Student color pages, one with color words in coordinating color and one with color words in black and white for students learning color sight words.

•Snowman Memory Match: Students play a memory game with snowmen by matching colors. Instructions and ideas to make it a successful, fun, interactive game are shared.

•Missing Snowballs: Students figure out the missing number in a sequence of numbers. Students place the snowball with the number or write the missing number with a dry erase marker.

•Missing Snowball Student Page: Students complete this take home page to check for understanding or send home for extra practice work.

•Snowball Fight! Students color in the correct number of snowballs in each column for one to one correspondence work.

•Snowball Fight 2! A second version of the student page with number words instead of numerals for students working on number sight words.

•Snowflake Ten Frame Cards: Students count the number of snowflakes in each ten frame and match with the correct snowball number. Cards with numbers 1 through 10 are included.

•Blank Ten Frame Cards: A set of blank ten frame cards are included to allow for students to use with manipulatives. Students can roll a die, pick a number card, etc. Two students can play together and then compare numbers and/or figure out how many more are needed to make 10.

•Snowflake Ten Frames: Students color in the correct number of ten frames according to the number in the snowflake.

•Comparing Numbers/Greater Than and Less Than: Cards with snowballs on them from 0 to 15. Students count the snowballs on two cards and figure out which one has more or less and then use the greater than/less than cards to make a number sentence. A student-recording sheet is included for extra practice, to check mastery, or send for homework.

•Snow Globe Number Bonds: Number bonds help your students learn to compose and decompose numbers and learn about number combinations. The two smaller numbers in the snowballs, when added together, equal the larger number in the snow globe. Print on cardstock, laminate, and cut apart cards. Use manipulatives or drawings to represent numbers and make student learning hands on.

•Mitten and Snowball Alphabet Cards: Both upper and lower case cards are included to match, place in alphabetical order, figure out which letters are missing in a sequence, and use with Snow Globe Letter Sound Cards.

•Snow Globe Letter Sound Cards: Snow Globes with pictures of items that represent beginning sounds for each letter of the alphabet. Print on cardstock, laminate and cut apart. Use to match upper and/or lowercase letters and use with student recording sheets.

•Snow Globe Student Recording Sheets: Four versions available (two uppercase; one in order and one out of order and two lowercase; one in order and one out of order). Use the sheet(s) that work best for the level of your learner(s). Students find the letters on snowflakes in the snow globes and color are bingo dot the letters.

•Snowball Rhyme Time: Students place snowballs on mittens and hat patterns according to the word it rhymes with. A student-recording sheet is also provided for extra practice work.

•Snowy Syllables: Use a clothespin to clip or a dry erase marker to circle or color the number of syllables in each word.

•Snowy Segments: Students points to each letter as they segment the individual sounds (phonemes) of the word. Then, using the arrow, blend the sounds all together to say the word. A student-recording sheet is also provided for extra practice work.

•Snowman Name Art Project: Instructions and patterns to build a snowman with student’s name. Two sizes to choose from, depending on the length of the student’s name. A snow scene background is also provided, along with a hat and scarf pattern to dress up this adorable snowman.

•Snow Globe Craftivity: Patterns and ideas for students to make their own snow globes.

Saturday, December 17, 2016

Are you needing an easy, quick, inexpensive parent gift? This could be the thing for you, then! This is a version of one of my gifts from my son when he was in preschool. 20 years later I still unpack it with my Christmas decorations. It still melts my heart! 💝

I helped my students paint their hand green and press it on white construction paper in the shape of a wreath. {Tip, I use sponge paint brushes to help control the amount of paint to dry faster}. After the hands are dry, my little ones dipped their finger in red paint to make berries.

Next, I glued the wreath print on larger black construction paper, taped the corners with Washi tape {I found mine at Michael's}, and last added the hand signed tag at the bottom.

Monday, December 12, 2016

Do you have an Elf in your classroom? Our classroom elf made his appearance this week. My sweet ones are super excited and I wanted to capitalize on their excitement with some engaging learning activities with an Elf theme.

To incorporate writing activities, each little learner has an Elf Journal to record where our Elf appears each morning.

I have seen a huge amount of success with illustrations this year since talking about what shapes are needed to draw certain pictures. I am nothing less than amazed with my sweet babies illustrations. In these drawings, our elf was hiding in the mouth of our old lady puppet, as you can clearly see!

This is the first page of our journal. I love seeing the different stages of writing each little learner is in. There is everything from scribble writing to random strings of letters, to actual words. Each stage is exciting to watch as it develops into the next level.

Ordinal numbers are a part of our early learning standards, but it is a very difficult concept for most. We used a real shelf and different stuffed animals to work on first, second, third, fourth, and fifth. This is a concept that seems super easy at first, but let me tell you, it is very difficult! We practiced a lot with objects and even ourselves lining up. This is something we will definitely revisit again.

Positional words can also be tricky for the early learner. Here I used a shelf and an actual elf to help my learners with some hands on activities to reinforce this concept.

Then, we practiced again in this take home reader.

Using present tree ornaments (available at most craft stores), we counted for some one to one correspondence practice.

After that, we tried to figure out the missing number in a sequence.

What's an Elf Theme without an adorable craftivity? This project had a lot of difficult cutting, but my pre-k students rocked their scissor skills! Didn't they turn out super cute?

About Me

I teach 3 to 5 year olds in a blended Title One/Special Education classroom. I am blessed to have a job that I absolutely love. My paraprofessional, Valerie, is amazing. Together, we have so much fun teaching our preschool wonders!